Home Office

Prostitution

lord alton of liverpool: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byBaroness Williams of Trafford on 5 January (HL4302) concerning offences relating to prostitution, (1) whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of the terms of reference for the research that has been commissioned by the Home Office; and (2) who has been commissioned to conduct that research.

baroness williams of trafford: The Government will place a copy of the tender document which sets out the terms of reference for this research in the Library of the House. The research tender process will close on 15 January, after which time bids will be assessed and the successful applicant announced by the end of March 2018.

Lead: Theft

lord birt: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many incidents of the theft of lead from church roofs were reported in each of the past five years; whatwas the weight of the lead stolen in each of those years; and how many successful prosecutionsfor such theft therewere in each of those years.

baroness williams of trafford: The Home Office collects data on police recorded metal thefts, but it is not possible from these data to identify whether the metal was taken from a church, nor the weight of the stolen metalThe Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes police recorded crime data on metal theft annually within their property crime tables. The latest figures, for the year ending March 2017, can be accessed here:https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/focusonpropertycrimeappendixtablesProsecutions data are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

Antisocial Behaviour: Public Transport

baroness stowell of beeston: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many public transport operators have (1) applied, and (2) been granted, powers by the police to tackle anti-social behaviour since 2012.

baroness williams of trafford: Under section 5 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, Transport for London are able to apply to the court to grant an injunction to prevent individuals from engaging in anti-social behaviour and the Mayor of Greater Manchester wrote to the Home Office recently to request similar powers for Transport for Greater Manchester. In addition, the West Midlands Combined Authority (Functions and Amendment) Order 2017 allows the West Midlands Combined Authority to apply for an injunction against individuals in respect of anti-social behaviour on the bus and tram network in the Combined Authority Area.

Litter

baroness stowell of beeston: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have made any assessment of the use and effectiveness of Community Protection Notices in reducing litter around restaurants and shops.

baroness williams of trafford: The Community Protection Notice is one of the powers available to the police and local authorities through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 to help them to prevent and respond to different forms of anti-social behaviour. We do not require these agencies to report to the Government on their use of the powers and we have made no assessment of their effectiveness in reducing litter around restaurants and shops.

Road Traffic Offences: Mobile Phones

lord blencathra: To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure that police forces adopt and implement a consistent definition of what constitutes use of a mobile phone whilst driving; and whether they intend to introduce legislation to clarify the law in this regard.

baroness williams of trafford: The enforcement of the offence of driving whilst using a mobile phone is an operational matter for Chief Officers of police. This Government supports any action taken by the police to deter and reduce the number of mobile phone offences.

Offences against Children

lord blencathra: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 21 December 2017 (HL4228), whether they have made any assessment of the finding of the report by Quilliam, Group Based Child Sexual Exploitation – Dissecting Grooming Gangs, published in December 2017, that 84 per cent of child sexual exploitation offenders who operate in gangs or groups are Asian, most of whom are men “of Pakistani (Muslim) origin”; what is their estimate of that percentage; and, if different, on what statistics and records they have based their estimate.

baroness williams of trafford: Child sexual exploitation is not exclusive to any single culture, community, race or religion. It happens in all areas of the country and can take many forms.The Government has made significant progress in tackling child sexual exploitation as set out in its ‘Tackling CSE: Progress Report’ published in February 2017. This announced a £40m package of measures to protect children and young people from sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking, and to crack down on offenders. This includes our new £7.5 million centre of expertise on child abuse which is conducting research into offender motivations, so that we can better understand and target different forms of offending.

The Senior Deputy Speaker

Parliament: Correspondence

lord norton of louth: To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker how many items of correspondence were received in the Palace of Westminster in 2017; and of those, what proportion was received in the House of Lords.

lord laming: The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chairman of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf.In total, 1,633,770 items of mail were received in the Palace of Westminster in 2017. The Administration does not count which House each item goes to but estimates that approximately 30 per cent of these items were destined for the House of Lords. These figures do not include parcels, courier items or internal mail.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Small Businesses

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the results of the survey conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses that one in seven small business owners plan to downsize, close or sell their companies during the next three months.

lord henley: The Government has been clear in its commitment to making the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business. The UK has a record 5.7 million private sector businesses at the start of 2017, an increase of 197,000 compared with the start of 2016 and just over 2 million more than in 2010. Through our Industrial Strategy we will create a business environment that helps small businesses thrive.

Small Businesses: Billing

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address concerns about late payments to small to medium sized businesses.

lord henley: In April 2017, the Government introduced a duty on large businesses to report on their payment practices, policies and performance. This statutory requirement increases transparency, providing suppliers with better information about the payment practices of large businesses they intend to trade with.In October 2017 BEIS published two consultations on payment practices within the construction sector. The consultations run in parallel, with a response period of just over 12 weeks, closing on the 19 January 2018. Both consultations and supporting documentation will be used to assess the extent of the issues; and what further intervention is needed.In December 2017 the Government launched the Small Business Commissioner to help small businesses struggling with late payments. Paul Uppal, the Small Business Commissioner, will play an important role in supporting small businesses to resolve their payment disputes with larger businesses, providing advice, and help bring about a culture change in payment practices and how businesses deal with each other.In the public sector, the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, mandate that public sector buyers must include 30-day payment terms in new public sector contracts, and requires that this payment term be passed down the supply chain. The Mystery Shopper service will investigate reports of poor procurement practice and late payment, including late payment through the supply chain.The Government also continues to support the voluntary, industry-led Prompt Payment Code, which remains the gold standard of payment practices.